Bail prayers of 4 Maoists rejected, 1 deferred

Bhubaneswar: A court on Saturday rejected the bail plea of four senior Maoist leaders and postponed the hearing of bail plea of another Maoist to Monday whose release was demanded by abductors of Malkangiri District Collector and a junior engineer.

The plea for similar relief for another person, whose freedom was also demanded by Maoists, was posted for hearing on Monday.

While the bail pleas of Maoist Ganti Prasad, who is charged in about 100 cases in Andhra Pradesh and Orissa, Padma, wife of a senior Maoist leader was rejected, bail application of Srinivas Sriramulu was deffered to Monday. These three ultras are among the 7 people the Maoists want released in return of the abducted Malkangiri District Collector and a junior engineer.

Additional District Judge of the Fast Track court in Malkangiri, P K Karna, fixed Monday for hearing the bail application of Srinivas Sriramulu, a most wanted Maoist in Andhra Pradesh arrested in July 2007 from Kalimela area.

Former chief of Revolutionary Writers Association, Sriramulu had been lodged in Malkangiri jail except for a few months when he was taken to Andhra Pradesh in connection with some cases against him in the neighbouring state.

He was acquitted in four cases by a Malkangiri court while hearing in another was on.

The bail plea of Padma was rejected by Sub-divisional Judicial Magistrate (SDJM) in Koraput. Padma is facing charges, including waging war against the state and criminal conspiracy.